MONTEVIDEO – Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez met on Wednesday with a task force led by Diego Olivera, the head of the National Drugs Council, and Ricardo Bernardi, representative of the National School of Medicine, to advance prevention and risk reduction efforts.

Olivera said that future debates will focus on the issue of alcohol and psychoactive drug consumption in order to prevent abuse, as well as to foster harm and risk reduction strategies.

He told reporters that the organization will conduct an analysis of the country’s most widely used drugs, as well as the social groups most prone to substance abuse and the areas with the highest risk rates, so that the group may pursue solid solutions.

“We will push a very clear message because, beyond the regulations for each particular substance, all of them pose a risk to health,” Olivera said.

Bernardi announced that there will be a new meeting in two weeks to analyze which drugs to “focus the work on,” as addiction mechanisms are also present in habits, such as playing video games.

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